This invention relates generally to non-volatile flash memory systems, and, more specifically, to the structures of memory cells and arrays of memory cells, and to the process of forming them. All patents, patent applications and other documents cited in the present application are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.
There are many commercially successful non-volatile memory products being used today, particularly in the form of small form factor cards, which use an array of flash EEPROM (Electrically Erasable and Programmable Read Only Memory) cells. In one type of architecture, a NAND array, a series of strings of more than two memory cells, such as 16 or 32, are connected along with one or more select transistors between individual bit lines and a reference potential to form columns of cells. Word lines extend across cells within a large number of these columns. An individual cell within a column is read and verified during programming by causing the remaining cells in the string to be over driven so that the current flowing through a string is dependent upon the level of charge stored in the addressed cell. An example of a NAND architecture array and its operation as part of a memory system is found in U.S. Pat. No. 6,046,935.
In another type of array having a “split-channel” between source and drain diffusions, the floating gate of the cell is positioned over one portion of the channel and the word line (also referred to as a control gate) is positioned over the other channel portion as well as over the floating gate. This effectively forms a cell with two transistors in series, one (the memory transistor) with a combination of the amount of charge on the floating gate and the voltage on the word line controlling the amount of current that can flow through its portion of the channel, and the other (the select transistor) having the word line alone serving as its gate. The word line extends over a row of floating gates. Examples of such cells, their uses in memory systems and methods of manufacturing them are given in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,070,032, 5,095,344, 5,315,541, 5,343,063, 5,661,053, and 6,281,075.
A modification of this split-channel flash EEPROM cell adds a steering gate that provides a strong capacitive coupling to the floating gate without having direct control of the channel. Each steering gate of an array extends over one column of floating gates, perpendicular to the word line. The effect is to relieve the word line from having to perform two functions at the same time when reading or programming a selected cell. Those two functions are (1) to serve as a gate of a select transistor, thus requiring a proper voltage to turn the select transistor on and off, and (2) to drive the voltage of the floating gate to a desired level through an electric field (capacitive) coupling between the word line and the floating gate. It is often difficult to perform both of these functions in an optimum manner with a single voltage. With the addition of the steering gate, the word line need only perform function (1), while the added steering gate performs function (2). For source side injection programming, efficient programming is obtained by driving the select gate just barely (by for example 0.5V) about its threshold voltage, whereas the steering gate voltage will be incrementally increased from one programming pulse to the next, with verify and lockout operation performed in between programming pulses. The use of steering gates in a flash EEPROM array is described, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,313,421 and 6,222,762.
In any of the types of memory cell arrays described above, the floating gate of a cell is programmed by injecting electrons from the substrate to the floating gate. This is accomplished by having the proper doping in the channel region and applying the proper voltages to the source, drain and remaining gate(s).
Two techniques for removing charge from floating gates to erase memory cells are used in the three types of memory cell arrays described above. One is to erase to the substrate by applying appropriate voltages to the source, drain and other gate(s) that cause electrons to tunnel through a portion of a dielectric layer between the floating gate and the substrate. The other erase technique is to transfer electrons from the floating gate to another gate through a tunnel dielectric layer positioned between them. In the second type of cell described above, a third erase gate is provided for that purpose. In the third type of cell described above, which already has three gates because of the use of a steering gate, the floating gate is erased to the word line, without the necessity to add a fourth gate. Although this latter technique adds back a second function to be performed by the word line, these functions are performed at different times, thus avoiding the necessity of making a compromise because of the two conflicting requirements. When either erase technique is utilized, a large number of memory cells are grouped together for simultaneously erasure, in a “flash.” In one approach, the group includes enough memory cells to store the amount of user data stored in a disk sector, namely 512 bytes, plus some overhead data. In another approach, each group contains enough cells to hold several thousand bytes of user data, equal to many disk sectors' worth of data. Multi-block erasure, defect management and other flash EEPROM system features are described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,297,148.
As in most integrated circuit applications, the pressure to shrink the silicon substrate area required to implement some integrated circuit function also exists with flash EEPROM systems. It is continually desired to increase the amount of digital data that can be stored in a given area of a silicon substrate, in order to increase the storage capacity of a given size memory card and other types of packages, or to both increase capacity and decrease size. One way to increase the storage density of data is to store more than one bit of data per memory cell. This is accomplished by dividing a window of a floating gate charge level voltage range into more than two states. The use of four such states allows each cell to store two bits of data, eight states stores three bits of data per cell, and so on. A multiple state flash EEPROM structure and operation is described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,043,940 and 5,172,338.
Increased data density can also be achieved by reducing the physical size of the memory cells and/or the overall array. Shrinking the size of integrated circuits is commonly performed for all types of circuits as processing techniques improve over time to permit implementing smaller feature sizes. But there are usually limits of how far a given circuit layout can be shrunk in this manner, since there is often at least one feature that is limited as to how much it can be shrunk, thus limiting the amount that the overall layout can be shrunk. When this happens, designers will turn to a new or different layout or architecture of the circuit being implemented in order to reduce the amount of silicon area required to perform its functions. The shrinking of the above-described flash EEPROM integrated circuit systems can reach similar limits.
Another flash EEPROM architecture utilizes a dual floating gate memory cell along with the storage of multiple states on each floating gate. In this type of cell, two floating gates are included over its channel between source and drain diffusions with a select transistor in between them. A steering gate is included along each column of floating gates and a word line is provided thereover along each row of floating gates. When accessing a given floating gate for reading or programming, the steering gate over the other floating gate of the cell containing the floating gate of interest is raised sufficiently high to turn on the channel under the other floating gate no matter what charge level exists on it. This effectively eliminates the other floating gate as a factor in reading or programming the floating gate of interest in the same memory cell. For example, the amount of current flowing through the cell, which can be used to read its state, is then a function of the amount of charge on the floating gate of interest but not of the other floating gate in the same cell. Examples of this cell array architecture and operating techniques are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,712,180, 6,103,573 and 6,151,248.
In these and other types of non-volatile memories, the amount of field coupling between the floating gates and the control gates passing over them is carefully controlled. The amount of coupling determines the percentage of a voltage placed on the control gate that is coupled to its floating gates. The percentage coupling is determined by a number of factors including the amount of surface area of the floating gate that overlaps a surface of the control gate. It is often desired to maximize the percentage coupling between the floating and control gates by maximizing the amount of overlapping area. One approach to increasing coupling area is described by Yuan et al in U.S. Pat. No. 5,343,063. The approach described in that patent is to make the floating gates thicker than usual to provide large vertical surfaces that may be coupled with the control gates. Another approach that increases area coupling a floating gate and a control gate is described by Yuan in U.S. Pat. No. 6,908,817.
When increasing the vertical coupling areas between adjacent floating and control gates, it is further desirable to do so in a manner that does not increase the area of the substrate that is occupied by each cell. Also, it is preferable to reduce the floating gate to floating gate coupling, so that adjacent floating gates do not greatly affect each other.